On 25 November 2014 at 16:54, meekerdb <[email protected]> wrote: > On 11/24/2014 5:36 PM, LizR wrote: > > > > On 25 November 2014 at 13:41, John Clark <[email protected]> wrote: > >> On Mon, Nov 24, 2014 LizR <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> > I don't think we need to worry about intelligent machines. A >>> smartphone is fairly intelligent, for example, at doing what it does. >>> Conscious machines, which (according to Bruno, at least) are possible, are >>> another matter. >>> >> >> From a practical operational standpoint it doesn't matter if a machine >> (or one of my fellow human beings) is conscious or not, all that matters is >> if it can outsmart me or not. And by the way, if you think that >> "smartphone" is more than just a name for a certain type of phone and is >> really smart then why don't you think it's conscious too? It's almost as if >> you believe that consciousness is harder to achieve than intelligence. >> > > We've made intelligent machines, but I don't know of any conscious ones > (except those nature has produced, I mean) > > > But do you know we *have not* made any conscious ones? >
No, of course I don't, how could I? I said I wasn't aware of any. > > The main difference being that conscious beings have their own >>> objectives. >>> >> >> But even if a intelligent being is not conscious (something I am quite >> sure is not possible) it would have tendencies to act in one way rather >> than another determined by the thoughts (call them information streams if >> you like euphemisms) flowing through its brain; and the more intelligent >> the being is the harder it would be for you to understand them. And those >> thoughts may very often have absolutely positively nothing to do with your >> best interests. >> > > Looks like you are using an unusual definition of consciousness, so I > will pass on this discussion. > > What do you consider the usual definition of consciousness? Is it "having > an inner narrative" (per Julian Jaynes)? Perceiving and reacting to > surroundings? Understanding Lob's theorem? > I believe it's to do with awareness of one's self and surroundings, or something like that, but I'm not an expert and maybe you have a better definition? What I do know is that it isn't just another word for intelligence, which is what I was objecting to (as the quote above shows). -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
